Category Health/Medical

Apolipoprotein A-IV binds αIIbβ3 integrin and inhibits thrombosis. Nature Communications, 2018; 9 (1) DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-05806-0

Apolipoprotein A-IV linked with thrombosis in new study. Foods high in unsaturated fats may protect against cardiovascular disease, and new research published today in Nature Communications has uncovered why.

Apolipoprotein A-IV, known as ApoA-IV, is a plasma protein. Levels of ApoA-IV increase after the digestion of foods, particularly foods high in unsaturated fats, such as olive oil. Higher levels of ApoA-IV in the blood have been reported to be associated with lower rates of cardiovascular disease.

New research from the Keenan Research Centre for Biomedical Science (KRCBS) of St...

Biomedical engineers at UC Davis have created that mimic some of the properties of living cells. The artificial cells do not grow and divide, but could detect, react to and destroy bacteria in a lab dish.
Credit: Cheemeng Tan, UC Davis

“Lego block” artificial cells that can kill bacteria have been created by researchers at the University of California, Davis Department of Biomedical Engineering. The work is reported Aug. 29 in the journal ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces. “We engineered artificial cells from the bottom-up – like Lego blocks – to destroy bacteria,” said Assistant Professor Cheemeng Tan, who led the work. The cells are built from liposomes, or bubbles with a cell-like lipid membrane, and purified cellular components including proteins, DNA and metabolites.

“We demonstrate...

What came first, the chicken or the egg? Or both?
Credit: © olhastock / Fotolia

The “chicken or egg” paradox was first proposed by philosophers in Ancient Greece to describe the problem of determining cause-and-effect. Now, a team of physicists from The University of Queensland and the NÉEL Institute has shown that, as far as quantum physics is concerned, the chicken and the egg can both come first.

Dr Jacqui Romero from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Engineered Quantum Systems said that in quantum physics, cause-and-effect is not always as straightforward as one event causing another. “The weirdness of quantum mechanics means that events can happen without a set order,” she said. “Take the example of your daily trip to work, where you travel partly by bus and partly by train...

Myocardial Infarction Produces Sustained Proinflammatory Endothelial Activation in Remote Arteries

Cells and platelets stick inside arteries, increase risk after initial attack. Doctors have long known that in the months after a heart attack or stroke, patients are more likely to have another attack or stroke. Now, a paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology explains what happens inside blood vessels to increase risk – and suggests a new way to treat it.

Heart attacks in mice caused inflammatory cells and platelets to more easily stick to the inner lining of arteries throughout the body – and particularly where there was already plaque, according to the paper...